Jewish Cultural Opportunities in U.S. Discussed at Eight-day Rabbinical Institute

“The climate in America is extremely hospitable to the development of a great Jewish community, as creative for our times as was the Golden Age of Jewish literature and philosophy of the ancient Spanish Jewish community,” Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner said here today at the annual Summer Rabbinical Institute of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Close to one hundred rabbis from ell parts of the country came for the eight-day Institute which will deal with the current Jewish scene as well as with academic aspects of religion.

Dr. Brickner advocated a long-term conference of Jewish intellectuals who are concerned with the fulfillment of a Jewish renaissance, which he thinks possible today. “I do not have in mind a talk-a-ton,” he said. “I believe that out of research and study there should evolve a plan for the future of Jews and Judaism in this country that will build not only for America but will relate us to Israel and to world Jewry. The pattern of tomorrow will not come from the patter of today. It will only be shaped by a sincere and earnest desire to do what is feasible, to bring out the glory of our faith and let that glory illuminate and enrich the forces of civilization and democracy.”